House church movement seems unstoppable
Conference reports indicate that, from very small beginnings, in many nations fairly sizeable house church movements have emerged, including on the continents of Africa and Latin America.
Missiologist Wolfgang Simson from Germany, author of ‘Houses that change the world’, states in a report of the Delhi summit that in his estimation the number of house churches in Europe have already reached or surpassed 10,000. Australia could have up to 10,000, and New Zealand up to 6,000 house churches. Research in the US by the Barna Research Group (published earlier in Joel News International) shows that between 6 and 12 million people are attending house churches, making house churches one of the three largest Christian groups in the country. In the case of Bangladesh or India, with many hundreds of thousands of house churches, the various networks of house churches have already become the largest Christian movements in their respective countries.
“Prayer walking and the breaking of curses placed on the land has, in a number of areas, resulted in unprecedented harvests.”
“But it is not about setting up house-based worshipping communities alone,” says Dr.Victor Choudhrie, one of the conveners of the summit. In India, many house churches are beginning to change not only the spiritual climate, but begin to model the wholistic life in the Kingdom of God at the village level, demonstrating God’s ability to restore families, health and even to ‘heal the land.’ Dr. Choudhrie stated: “For example, constant prayer walking and the breaking of curses placed on the land has, in a number of areas, resulted in unprecedented harvests and other agricultural breakthroughs, demonstrating tangibly the blessing by which God is able and willing to upgrade and empower everyday life.”
In addition to that, the development of house churches in many nations is experiencing such a fresh and positive response from people growing up in Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist communities that, compared with recent missions history, this could only be called historic. Many participants expressed the observation that “the house church movement is growing up” and is beginning to make its own very significant contribution to fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus to disciple all the people groups of the world.
“There is a strong call to return to ‘the Gospel of the Kingdom’, the original message of Jesus.”
“Possibly the strongest emphasis at the Delhi Summit was the call to return to ‘the Gospel of the Kingdom’ in contrast to various truncated pseudo-gospels that have left many outside and even inside traditional churches with straw in their mouths,” says Wolfgang Simson. “This raised great hopes that even in the churched nations of the cultural West, a reevangelization and recalibration with the original message of Jesus will breathe new life into dim situations, and lead to a new level of genuine discipleship, authenticity and even authority in cultures that mistakenly thought they can safely close the chapter on Jesus.”
The participants at the summit agreed to encourage more trainers and catalysts, and started to seek God for appropriate next steps and strategies towards the planting of millions of new house churches in the next few years.
Source: Wolfgang Simson
Published in Joel News International
